Dan Hind, enlivened
by the Hellenic tumult, calls for a Coalition
of the Radical Left in Britain.I
love it. Of course I do.But isn’t it, to any rational
observer, a perfectly silly idea?

Anyone who has spent
much time listening to the British radical left these days would no more expect
them to coalesce than they would expect grace, humility and talent from Gary
Barlow.The latest rumble has been over
Assange, Wikileaks, US imperialism and the rape allegations, which has produced
more mutual distrust and resentment on the Left than I have seen for at least
weeks.The disagreement seems to be
between those who think the rape accusations against Julian Assange have been
politicised in order to facilitate his forward extradition to the US, and those
who think Assange’s supporters have greatly exaggerated this risk in order to
justify his refusal to go and face these allegations in Sweden.

This epic combat
between imperialist stooges and rape apologists has made the disagreements over
Syria look like frightfully civilized by comparison, and for sheer libidinised
apoplectics almost approaches the clash of 'very principled positions' over Tommy
Sheridan.So, we’re
going to have a Coalition of the Radical Left?Are we not, to the contrary, fucked? Have we not demonstrated that we are as weak and stalemated as the ruling class we oppose?

There is, however, a
potentially comforting straw in the wind.After all, the Greek left is itself bitterly divided.Although unity has often been achieved in
concrete struggles among networks of activists, the political forces are far
from unified.This is a real handicap,
but it has not prevented the emergence of Europe’s most promising radical left for
more than three decades.Part of the
reason that Syriza, despite its limited social basis, has been able to project
such strong support electorally is its ecumenical approach to the Left.Although it has never succeeded in winning
over the support of rivals such as the Greek communist party, it has sought to
position itself as a ‘canopy’ for those forces to the left of social
democracy.And in the elections, it
proposed a united government of the Left, with a resulting poll leap that
astonished its leadership.

This suggests that if
sections of the radical left can pull together and strike the right balance
between heterogeneity and unity in action, the recalcitrance of other forces
need not be a retardant to success.In a
situation where, across Europe, the traditional parties of reform and social
democracy are breaking down, there will be unusual opportunities for those radical
leftists who come correct. They will be
judged less by their proven social weight (in which terrain they can’t possibly
hope to compete with social democracy), than by the seriousness of their intent
and the ostensible practicality of their immediate proposals. (Notice how I’m tactfully leaving aside the
jarring differences in the level of organisation and militancy, the persistent,
near-insurgent level industrial and social struggles in Greece versus the
staggered, uncertain, numerically impressive but tactically cautious responses
of the British trade union movement?I’m
just trying to protect you.)

But who on the
British Left would be up for this?And
how would it be possible for us to overcome the accretions of suspicion and
disdain from past disputes? Even granting that I might be exaggerating these a bit, they do exist and they are an obstacle. Perhaps part
of the answer is to think anew about how we handle our differences. Here I'm talking just about the level of political culture, not institutions. Having been through several acrimonious moments,
including the car crash that was the break-up of the Respect coalition, I think
I have participated in enough sectarian bullshit and petty denunciations to
know the dimensions of the problem we have here.I think we have three related issues.First, regardless of protestations to the contrary, we sometimes do treat difference as
betrayal.Second, we occasionally forget to subordinate
divisions among ourselves to those in the wider society.Third, for all that we are practical types, we often forget that our arguments should be
oriented toward political action in some way.

Let me take each of these in turn.First, it’s clear that differences over
concrete questions such as the Assange issue or Syria don’t necessarily reflect
a logic of betrayal.One’s interlocutor
may not, in fact, be an imperialist stooge or a rape apologist.There are plenty of both about, and posing
the question of left unity always raises the sub-question: on what basis?Surely not on the basis of keeping schtum
when another leftist does or says something destructive? Naturally, no. There is no question of politeness in the face of attack.But where there’s any doubt, it would be helpful to assume good faith.Nor are the differences between leftists
merely capricious.Serious political
differences reflect judgement calls based on specific historical
experiences.At a certain level, these
questions are not resolved by logic or empirical data, but by what is commonly
called ‘gut instinct’.This just refers
to the way in which people from different political traditions reflecting different
experiences tend to solve questions whose answer is indeterminate.

The most interesting
writing on both of the subjects I mentioned has been that which has tried, with
different emphases, to transcend these specific experiences and point to the
underlying unity of apparently counterposed priorities: democratic revolution vs.
anti-imperialism; feminism vs. anti-imperialism.The least interesting interventions have
simply reproduced the polarising tendencies that are amplified through social
media like Twitter, where snark and self-righteous sentiment-mongering is the
currency of interaction.(Imagine being
stuck in a room with a bunch of intelligent people who nonetheless constantly
trademark their mundane thoughts with a hash-tag, or over-value expressions
such as ‘roflcopter’, ‘lmfao’, ‘wtaf’, ‘zomg’ and ‘step away from the internet’.Then imagine they won’t shut up, ever.Then imagine you’re one of those people.)

Second, it seems to
me that the most destructive invective flying about on the Left has always been
incredibly insular, insensible of how these arguments relate to the discussions
taking place beyond the Left.We should
by no means be wary of giving the impression that we have substantial
disagreements and lively debates.Nor
should we scruple to criticise our allies if need be.But we should certainly avoid giving the
impression that we’re paying no attention to what is going on around us, or
that the outcome of internecine feuds actually matters more than the outcome of
social and political struggles.Finally,
such venom is all too often not oriented toward doing or achieving anything
concrete, but rather has to do with posturing, spectacle-positioning: we who
are virtuous say ‘down with this sort of thing (careful now)’.One way of testing for this is to ask what,
concretely, mutual denunciations are supposed to achieve apart from mutual dissipation
and disorganisation? Or, which of the contending 'very principled positions' are actually being advanced? If the answer is, 'actually none', then there's possibly a problem.